Wofford not looking past Runnin' Bulldogs

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — After an emotional victory last week against Georgia Southern, the Wofford football team has a non-conference game followed by an open date.

Terriers head coach Mike Ayers knows what you’re thinking.

And it’s not going to happen.

Ayers said his team, which jumped six spots Monday into The Sports Network Top 10 and two spots to No. 8 in the FCS coaches’ poll, will not be lulled into a letdown for the 7 p.m. Saturday game at Gibbs Stadium against Gardner-Webb of nearby Boiling Springs, N.C.

“You can tell the players and you can explain it to them,” Ayers said. “But the best thing to do is let them look at the film. That gives them a reality check that they might need.”

Gardner-Webb beat Furman, 28-21, in the season opener and after a blowout loss to FBS team Marshall, the Runnin’ Bulldogs on Saturday knocked off Richmond, which was ranked No. 11 by the coaches and No. 15 by the media. The Spiders were held to 10 rushing yards in the game.

Wofford has won six straight in the series, five since 2004 by scoring an average of 45 points per game. But this is a different Gardner-Webb team under Carroll McCray, a former GWU player who was head coach last season at North Greenville.

“Gardner-Webb is a much-improved team,” Ayers said. “It’s definitely a team that we need to be worried about. Those guys seem confident and it’s because they’re good.”

Ayers wasn’t sure how good the Terriers were after a 69-3 blowout loss against Baylor in the season opener and had questions after the 21-10 win the following week at The Citadel. Last week against a Georgia Southern team that is downgraded by many voters in one poll and not included in the other because the Eagles have exceeded the FCS scholarship limit in transition to the Sun Belt, some of the clouds lifted. But Ayers warned that it’s not sunny skies just yet.

“I think if we continue to work and continue to get better, if we can do that, we can be successful,” he said. “There’s a lot of football to be played. There are a lot of tough teams to play against. What we’ve got to do is grow as a team and make sure we’re progressing. We can’t sit back and say, ‘We’ve arrived.’ That would be completely ridiculous.”

Wofford should be credited especially for its defense, which didn’t look so good when it was torched against Baylor. The Terriers bounced back the following week and didn’t allow an offensive touchdown against The Citadel. Then they held a Georgia Southern team averaging 68 points (against Savannah State and Saint Francis) to just three touchdowns, one of those on a 46-yard drive after a fumble and another basically meaningless score at the end of the game.

“It proved that we’re resilient,” Wofford linebacker Travis Thomas said. “I think there was a question about how we would be without the leadership of guys like Mike Niam (who graduated and earned a free-agent tryout with the Cleveland Browns). People wondered how we would react in tough situations. But we showed that we could come together.”